Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2D) patients are at very high risk to have eye complications. Purpose of the study was to determine the prevalence of diabetes eye complications (DEC) and its correlation with glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in diabetes population attending community clinics across India.

Methods: A total of 1547 T2D patients (935 males and 612 females) EMR records were retrospectively analyzed. For DEC correlation with GFR, patients were grouped into GFR ≤60 and GFR >60 mg/ml/1.73m². Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 20, with significance P ≤0.05.

Results: In 1547 T2D patients, 204(13.1%) had DEC, mean (SD) age 56.7(10.0) years; 122(59.8%) males and 82(40.2%) females. Of these, GFR calculated for 443 patients had mean GFR of 91.2 mg/ml/1.73 m²; 388(87.5%) and 55(12.5%) patients had GFR >60 and ≤60, respectively. DEC was observed in 79(17.8%) patients, mean (SD) age 55.5(13.8) years; among them 49(62%) males and 30(38%) females. GFR was significantly lower in patients with DEC compared to patients without DEC (79.4 vs. 93.8 mg/ml/1.73m²; P=0.000). Prevalence of DEC in patients with GFR ≤60 was higher compared to patients with GFR >60(38% vs. 15%; P=0.000). However, there was no specific gender preponderance.

Conclusion: Our study is one of the few studies from India that reports the prevalence of DEC from a community based clinics based on fundus photographs and correlating with GFR, thus diabetes kidney disease (DKD). The correlation of DEC with low GFR can suggest presence of DKD in a community, thus, reiterating the significance of EC screening in community diabetes practices. Implementing these findings into clinical decision pathways may improve the quality of health care delivery.